Sujiwo Tejo to take part in Mongolia festival

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian musician Sujiwo Tejo will represent the country at Roaring Hoofs, the First International Gobi Festival of Actual Music, the festival where Eastern and Western contemporary music meet.

Apart from Indonesia, musicians from more than 15 countries, including China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Mongolia, will present their unique compositions at the festival, scheduled to be held from June 7 to June 12.

For the first two days of the festival, the participants will camp in the Gobi desert and take part in the Desert Concert.

Sujiwo was recommended from noted musician and chairman of the Indonesian Composers' Association Slamet Abdul Sjukur and etnomusicologist Dieter Mack to appear in the festival. He will present his unique musical arrangement, a blend of Javanese traditional music and Western music.

Etnomusicologist Bernard Wuff, also the festival's president director, praised Sujiwo's music, referring to the performance as "magic theater from Indonesia".

The 37-year-old Sujiwo, who is about to complete his second album, will perform on the fourth day of the international festival on June 11 at the capital city Ulan Bator. For an hour, he will present compositions exploring music from the shadow puppet show.

His first album, Pada Suatu Ketika (Once Upon A Time) was released last year and regarded as a new musical experience by many. Sujiwo, who prefers to be called an entertainer instead of singer, composed his songs all in Javanese, although many of the titles are in Indonesian. (ste)